Apple plans to build an electric car and ship it by 2019, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The company has spent more than a year investigating the feasibility of an Apple-branded car, including meetings with two groups of government officials in California, the Journal says, quoting un-named sources familiar with the matter (and it's worth taking seriously. Unlike some blog sites, the Journal has a solid track-record pre-announcing Apple's next moves).
The electric car effort has now been designated internally as a “committed project,” with the go-ahead given to triple its 600-person team.
Apple has hired experts in driverless cars, the Journal says but the people familiar with Apple’s plans say the company doesn’t currently plan to make its first electric vehicle fully autonomous, at least in Version 1.0.
Creating an electric car within four years seems ambitious. The Journal notes it's not clear if the 2019 "ship date" is a target for the car's commercial release, or to have the first prototype.
It's also not clear who will make Apple's car. The Californian company outsources most of its gadget production to Foxconn in China. Finding a contract-manufacturer to assemble a car will be a more complex endeavour.
Some will wonder why Apple, which now has around $US203 billion in the bank, doesn't just buy Tesla.
The company has spent more than a year investigating the feasibility of an Apple-branded car, including meetings with two groups of government officials in California, the Journal says, quoting un-named sources familiar with the matter (and it's worth taking seriously. Unlike some blog sites, the Journal has a solid track-record pre-announcing Apple's next moves).
The electric car effort has now been designated internally as a “committed project,” with the go-ahead given to triple its 600-person team.
Apple has hired experts in driverless cars, the Journal says but the people familiar with Apple’s plans say the company doesn’t currently plan to make its first electric vehicle fully autonomous, at least in Version 1.0.
Creating an electric car within four years seems ambitious. The Journal notes it's not clear if the 2019 "ship date" is a target for the car's commercial release, or to have the first prototype.
It's also not clear who will make Apple's car. The Californian company outsources most of its gadget production to Foxconn in China. Finding a contract-manufacturer to assemble a car will be a more complex endeavour.
Some will wonder why Apple, which now has around $US203 billion in the bank, doesn't just buy Tesla.
